VF-19

I always thought it was Starscream's ambitions that made him fall into the decepticon ranks. I know in one of the constructicon's origins (no less than three I think), Megatron did use a device that turned them into decepticons, but I don't recall Starscream getting the brainwashing treatment.

I'm not doubting what you said David, it's just, interesting that the model could be nearly 100% wrong. I'm going to do what you suggested and have a look around on various modeling websites. I knew from the beginning that the cockpit was at least 99.9% inaccurate...

Interesting... Every square inch you say... I'll try to remember to post a picture of it when the whole thing is put together (but before painting, like one of WM's in prog shots). Then you can have the pleasure of pointing out all the things wrong with it. On a side note, I saw some film of the actual Raptor, and the model looks pretty good, although it was in-flight footage, so the camera wasn't really lingering on the plane for any length of time...

You must post progress shots. I've been considering that model. Sadly, no other model of the Raptor exists. Italeri has a 1/48 but I hear it sucks. The Tamiya 1/72 is just a reboxed Italeri 1/72. Initial impressions: Interesting parts breakdown. The main body is composed of 4 pieces. 2 form the nose, and 2 form the rear of the plane. On mine one of my nose pieces was badly warped, and the wing halves on the body are also warped. Luckly the nose was fixed by simply bending the plastic back to where it was supposed to be, and then using tape to hold it in position while the glue dried. The body halves will be easier as it's not badly warped, just the wings are sticking out at odd angles. Missile bays can be done open or closed, and on mine, they're going to be closed. I just don't want do deal with the tiny parts that make up the open missile bay. I'm also leaving off the wing pylons, as I don't think I've seen Raptors with them on. So far, all I've done on the kit was the nose, and I'm currently waiting for the putty to dry so I can sand. David: I hear the Italiari kit is flawed, what's "wrong" with the 1:72 kit? It looks ok to me... Aside from the missing gack in the wheel and missile bays, the overall shape looks fine. Also, do Raptors have optional wing pylons, and if they do, won't they ruin the stealthyness of the airplane?

The F/A-22 is known as the Raptor. Originally it was called Lightning II. Heck I like the look of the plane so much I'm braving the Italiari 1:72 kit of it... So far so good... Just the usual warped parts.

To be simple, a tank eliminates the potential pulsing of your airflow. Not to mention, a large enough tank will allow you to airbrush in the dead of night without waking anybody as there's enough air in it to do work. PS, mine's a Badger 200 NH, but look at WM Cheng's work for a better example of how it performs, I'm not that good yet.

It's mine too . I love it even more each time I use it. Pity it's a little inconvient, as I'm not allowed to airbrush in the house.

Nope it wouldn't be stupid at all to buy a badger 200. I use one myself, and it lays down nice clean coats of paint. Cleanup is easy too, with everything coming apart and back together again with no problems. Then again, I thourougly clean my airbrush after each use, so I think I'm overdoing the cleanup part. On a very interesting side note, the Badger 200's paint jars are larger versions of the Tamiya paint jars (the 10 ml ones), so once you've used up the paint in the Tamiya bottle, you can convert it into a little paint jar. I tried it out myself and it works great. Heck, you can even, with a little bit of thinner, spray straight from the bottle.

Interesting. I've airbrushed with acyrilics (Tamiya's to be specific), and they don't seem really fragile. But then again, acyrilics aren't as durable as enamels or lacquer paints, so you do have to be careful with them. You might consider painting a top coat on them once the paint has dried.

I got it about a week ago at my local Wal-Mart for $25 CDN. I took one look at it, and then found my self running to the cash with it in tow. Yah, in comparison to Robocop 1, 2 and 3 are a bit of a let down, but 3 is so cheesy, it's so much fun to watch. I'll buy that for a dollar!

The nasty bit about forward swept wings is that they poke out of the shockwave cone, thus they aren't the "best" for high speed flight. Theoretically, the 19 could go even faster with a permimently swept back wing (as in a total wing re-design). Current FSW designs allow the tips to flex, so that they don't snap off during high speed flight, something that the pilot doesn't want to happen.

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if the wings retracted into the back of the body in the VF-1. It looks like there might be enough room to pull them up at most 1 meter, but I doubt it.

Well, if you want arcade style flight sims, then consider Crimson Skies or Secret Weapons over Normandy (a WW2 styled Crimson Skies). Also, if you want to consider IL-2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles with the Ace expansion pack, there are multiple realism options built in, so you can turn off stalls, overheats, complex engine managment etc to have a simple shoot-em-up with Russian, German, and American planes.

A long wooden plank that can't go very fast, that can't turn very well, and costs more than to upgrade our current carriers?

Or you could wait a bit longer. Enamels sometimes takes a very long time to cure. Drying paint is one thing, but it has to cure first. Give it a week at the most. If it's still tacky, either its never going to cure, or it's going to take longer.

Uh, since he's an unregistered Animagus, nobody knows that he can transform into a large dog. !SPOILER! It's how he kept most of his sanity (and the knowledge that he wasn't guilty) in Azkaban, by turning into a dog, and using his transformation to escape. If everybody knew he was an unregistered Animagus, then in addition to his picture on the wanted poster, there would have been a picture of him as a dog. I saw the movie on friday, and I really liked it. One thing I didn't like was the bit that they left out the whole secret-keeper buisness... But then again, my theater was really noisy, so I may have missed it.

Giant contact lenses Or perhaps the macronization process corrects genetic defects. Graham More realistically, though, it's possible to make the visor one giant perscription lense, provided both his eyes require the same perscription strength. I've heard the Royal Canadian Air Force was experiementing with these (I even got to meet one of the involved researchers), but I don't know what came of them. But that Max Q-Rau looks mighty nice.

Knowing Bandai's penchant for recolours, I'd wager that it has the "A" plastered in all the right places. That or it's in a G-3 colour scheme. Now Voyager, I wouldn't mind. I've always liked the Intrepid class ship design, but what I'd really like to see is an Ambassador class (Enterprise-C) design. For some reason, I really really like the design.

Good pun, but no the Sphere Builders are definatley not the Borg. The Sphere builders come from a different universe entierely. As for the NX-01, I hope it at least gets repaired. Seeing holes through any starship makes me happy. I like it when the Enterprise really gets smashed up, as I find it really repetitive when the ship manages to soak up so much damage, and not really suffer. Hence I like Star Trek 2 and 6, as the Enterprise is badly damaged (and in 6 a nice new ventalation hole in the saucer section! ). Aren't I one sadistic bugger? Heck I was really happy when Enterprise was blown up in the "what-if" episode. That was one heck of a spacefight.

Part of the other reason why the British kept shooting at the Bismark was that they didn't want to leave it as a floating wreck, and have the possiblity that the Germans would tow it back to base, repair her, and send her back out again. Now granted, Bismark would probably have been more valuable as scrapmetal for use to build/repair other ships, but denying the Germans the chance to recover the Bismark was an important goal accomplished in sinking her.

There's one possible reason why the Xindi only saw one spacestation: The others were on the far side of the planet, and thus would have been in Earth's sensor shadow. The Columbia (good homage, and if it goes like this, then the other ships could be named Endevour, Discovery, and Challenger) isn't finished yet. Now granted, the NX class of ships have been show, rather graphically, that they can take a beating and still hold together, but a half completed ship really isn't in any shape to fight. As for the other ships, honestly, I have no clue why they weren't there. But! Space is a big place, and considering the level of warp technology in Enterprise, it's possible that the ships were on the far leg of their patrol route, and thus too far away to be detected/or reach the weapon in time. Yah, Shran's appearance was a little convient, but it made up for it in a good space battle. Ah, yes the deflector pulse beam... Well if anything, the ship would have been destroyed, whereas, Enterprise-D wasn't in danger of exploding. Granted Enterprise-D was in much better shape though. Yup... Handweapon frequency thing again... Annoyingly convient, but how else are you going to stop those weird aliens? They don't exist in our universe... But then again, modulating your guns so that the shots exist in their universe... To hard to work out... As for just Earth being flung back in time, I somehow don't think so. Most likely, as others have stated, Daniels may have played a hand in this. But usually all the jumps in time have happened when the characters were going through a doorway, passageway etc. The transition point may be when Enterprise exited the Xindi-aquatic's "Enterprisebay", but it was sufficiently vague, so it's possible that the Aquatic ship may be stuck back in time with them, as you could move the transition point back to when the Aquatic ship exited the portal. And yes, I too feel that multiple endings were shot for the end of this season... That whole WW2 thing was so totally out of the blue...

Thanks for the information David. I had no idea that it was so hard to manufacture battleship armour. Then again, I really don't know how difficult it is to make any sort of armour. I guess this also partly explains the higher output of US tanks in ww2, since thinner armour would be easier to manufacture than thick armour. It also helped that the auto industry built the tanks too...

Ouch. That's pretty dexterous for a ship that big. And I thought the Tirpitz and the Bismark were nasty... Now I really don't want an Iowa class battleship on my tail... While on the sub-subject of battleships, exactly how does one armour a battleship from enemy fire. I know you can't simply increase the thickness of the plating on the ship. Too heavy, and your ship may not want to float any more. Too light, and she'll not float due to all the holes in her. Is it possible to have multiple thin layers of armour to disperse the energy of the incoming round? Or am I asking silly questions? And in addition to armour, are modern-day carriers armoured in any way. I've watched Discovery channel specials on construction of Nimitz class carriers, and the modular sections they were lowering into position didn't look to be armoured. I could be wrong (as I've never seen one of those sections up close), but considering that a Phalanx defence may not get every missile headed towards the ship, woudln't some sort of armour help to minimize the damage? And now the Macross related response! I agree with most people's ideas on the whole "thumb" look of the two ships attached to the arms of the SDF-1, but considering that the whole series takes place in the 2010s, bulbous bows aren't totally out of the question. Weren't the two ships built during the SDF-1's reconstruction phase?

You may have to wait a bit longer... SAL can be very slow. I had to wait a month for a shipment once, and I was getting a bit nervous, as they usually arrive in 2 weeks. There's a FAQ on HLJ's website concerning shipment times, and when you should contact HLJ. Should be under the shipping faq.

Actually, those may not be bootlegs. I know Takara licenced some Korean companies to build their transformers for sale in Korea. He may well have an original. It just looks too good to be a bootleg.